DAY 1 FRIDAY

9:00 P.M.

You are a large animal veterinarian practicing 15 miles west of Orlando, Florida. Billie Burns, a client of yours, called you tonight about some of his beef cows on pasture that have been depressed and off feed for the past two days. He is concerned because he suspects at least three cows are "not acting right." He asks that you come out to the farm tomorrow to take a look at them.

DAY 2 SATURDAY

10:00 A.M.

When you arrive at the farm, you watch some of the cows in a pasture and notice that indeed three of the cows are not eating. The three cows are standing under shade shelters, but they are not chewing cud. Instead, two cows are gazing up at the sky and the third cow has its front legs spread apart with its head lowered. Billie walks up to where you are parked and tells you he saw these same three cows walking in circles earlier this morning.

You get out of the truck and walk up to the sick cows. You immediately notice that in addition to looking depressed, they are also breathing rapidly. You think to yourself that they should not be tachypnic due to heat stress as it is a cool morning, even for late September in Florida. You take a quick TPR on these three cows. Each cow has an elevated pulse over 110 BPM. On auscultation, all three have gurgling sounds coming from the lung fields. The temperature of the first cow you check is 106.5⁰ F! You turn to Billie and say that this cow (and most likely the others) is in bad shape, with nervous signs, fever, respiratory distress, and elevated heart and respiratory rates. In addition, they all three appear to be at least 7-10% dehydrated.

You decide to ask Billie some questions about what exactly he’s seen. You realize you need answers fast!

What do you want to know at this point?